FBI's Most Wanted Arguably its most infamous inmate, Martin Luther King, Jr's convicted assassin James Earl Ray spent years locked up in Brushy, notably spending time inside cell #28. After initially pleading guilty to the MLK Jr. shooting, he later recanted claiming to be the patsy of a government conspiracy. Despite several escape attempts - one of which led to a massive FBI hunt in 1977, earning him dreaded D-Block isolation and years added to his sentence - he was reportedly an otherwise model prisoner. Once stabbed 22 times by four black inmates, he managed to survive. While suffering from liver disease in a Nashville correctional hospital, Ray promised Dr. King's son he was innocent shortly before he died in April of 1998. No evidence ever emerged to prove his claim.